Integrate Email Marketing with Facebook

September 08, 2010 · by Paul Chaney

I subscribe to a number of email "circulars" from companies like Best Buy, Macy's, Casual Living and others. Their width resembles the new size restrictions now in place for Facebook tab pages.

What if, the next time you create an email campaign, you were to replicate it as a custom tab on your fan page as well? Think of the advantages:

• Technology - From a technical standpoint, it would be relatively easy to deploy, as the CSS/HTML would likely translate very well without recoding being called for (minimal amount if so). The biggest issue is one of width. Email versions are often wider than the 520px allotment by Facebook, but that shouldn't be a prohibitor.
• Marketing - From a marketing standpoint, it's certainly worth experimentation. Social commerce is a rising tide. Links would need to be tagged appropriately so as to identify the source for tracking purposes.
• Design - The design of email campaigns are often very apropos for use in Facebook.
• Content - It's repurposing content that has already been created. Create once, publish twice.

Regarding the last point, whoever said custom Facebook fan pages should remain static. My friend Pat Kitano once put it this way, "Facebook fan pages are the new Sunday circular." With that in mind, why not routinely update them with fresh content? If you regularly produce email campaigns, using them for your fan page only makes sense.

How about email sending platforms like Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Exact Target, Mail Chimp and others tackling this from an app development standpoint. They are all clamoring to stake a claim inside social media, but most of what I've seen from their efforts include little more than social sharing options or subscription forms. To take an actual email campaign and plunk it down inside a Facebook Page, now that's something really useful.

In the meantime, with a little technical savvy, you could do this yourself. This Practical Ecommerce article, 6 Facebook Apps to Enhance Your Company's Fan Page, should provide enough information to get you started.

Some other ways to incorporate email marketing campaigns are:

Notes - Republish the email message as a Note, which is a basic component in the Facebook Platform. Notes are Facebook's version of a blog and are a useful container for any type of content, including email marketing messages.

Email broadcast - Use the email broadcast capabilities provided within the fan page to re-broadcast your message.

Wall post - If your ESP offers a web-based version of the email message, copy and paste the link as a Wall post.

Subscription form - Put a subscription form on the fan page to enable fans to opt-in to the newsletter.

The bottom line here is to re-purpose content you have already developed. Make Facebook a critical part of your overall online marketing plan, then integrate it with email marketing. It's a two-for-one punch!

What tips do you have for integrating email with social media, especially where Facebook is concerned?

Category: The Social Retailer | Tags: facebook, social media, Email